Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. We just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. He is Darren Doogie Wolfson from the 5 Eyewitness News Sports Department. And he's here with a little information and maybe some speculation about your favorite Minnesota football team. Dugues, let's start here. Offensive line coach. So the Vikings decided to not renew the contract of Chris Cooper, which we talked about with you last week. And we also kicked around a few different names, and you can color in some of the details of what you know and who some of these guys are. But I want to bring Alec Lewis's report into the table too. It kind of jives with the names we were talking about last week. He mentions in The Athletic that Frank Smith, former Dolphins offensive coordinator under Mike McDaniel and Keith Carter the current assistant O-line coach for the Vikings are in the mix as candidates to be the Vikings offensive line coach your thoughts absolutely Phil first off thank you for your powerful message on social media on Sunday or Saturday whatever day that was Saturday night thank you if we can be any sort of diversion and escape. Happy to do it. Hopefully it looks like some progress is being made. Hopefully there's some meaningful change in the coming weeks. But yeah, I'll keep it on topic here with the Vikings. So there was legit interest. I brought up the name in this space last Tuesday, Dwayne Ledford, let go by the Falcons when Kevin Stefanski takes over there in Atlanta. He is now transitioning to Baltimore to work under Jesse Minter. But I know that his name at least came up internally. Like he was very much on their radar in Egan. Yeah, those are two intriguing names, Smith and Carter. I mean, I think about Smith, I think about Mike McDaniel, like the brilliant run game coordinator Mike is, like has some of that bled into Frank Smith? Now Frank just interviewed for the Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator position. So he might be in a position to continue as an OC. But with his offensive line background, yeah, I mean, Frank Smith, that would be a super intriguing hire. Like if he has any intimate knowledge, and of course he would have some, whether he can articulate it and all that would remain to be seen. But like I think about Mike McDaniel, how innovative he is when it comes to the run game, how helpful some of those philosophies, those tendencies, all that, Those schemes could be here. Yes, sign me up for Frank Smith. The easy hire would be to promote Keith Carter. You look at Keith's background, it makes all sorts of sense. So yeah, those are absolutely two names to keep an eye on. And yeah, I wouldn't dismiss the idea of just promoting Keith. I mean, he's very much in line, right? When you make the change, you don't renew Chris Cooper's contract. I voiced my opinion on that last week that I'm not sure I would blame Chris, but you just, you couldn't run back this entire operation from an offensive standpoint. There had to be an inevitable fall guy. So there you go. Chris Cooper is that fall guy. So if you look at Keith's background from the Titans and elsewhere, like he's very worthy of a promotion. So I wouldn't be shocked. I know some guys internally really have a healthy opinion of Keith. So, you know, from that standpoint, I wouldn't be shocked. But yeah, I mean, just thinking about Frank, I don't have anything to like report right this second, like I did last week with Ledford being on the radar of the Vikings, but like, how would Frank Smith not be on their radar? So yeah, certainly two very intriguing names. So to go back to Carter though, he was, he came here from the Jets. He had been O-line coach with the Jets. He'd been O-line coach at one time with the Titans. And in both cases, there were players who spoke up about his style. Now, I believe that the Titans theme was, well, he came in as a real hard ass and he did soften up. But then he went to the Jets and also had some guys question him. So I guess my question is, it's 2026 now. I don't know that you can run roughshod over players as much as coaches did 20 years ago what would the thinking be there because um i certainly wouldn't want to get into a situation where you've got a guy who is your prototypical old school offensive line coach and now you got problems with guys like darisaw o'neill the offensive line yeah dukes let me read actually real quick before you jump in i I want to read a quote, Taylor LeJuan from Bustin' with the Boys, who was with the Titans. Because if you look at Carter's resume, it's like, oh, five years as Mike Vrabel's offensive line coach in Tennessee, and they had a lot of success running and doing their thing, and then two years with the Jets and the run game coordinator. So Taylor LeJuan on Bustin' with the Boys a few years ago described Carter in Tennessee as, quote, disrespectful, authoritative, in a dictator sort of way. He did say that Carter grew every single year. but set impossible standards for the offensive line. Quote, I think Heath is a good offensive line coach, but I just wish he focused more on taking care of the older players. Those practices are hard, and they wear on your body, and they wear your tires out really fast. And then, like, with the Jets, Mekhi Becton and a couple other players chirped on social media, either, like, echoing LaJuan's statements or what have you. But then it's like, we all laud Mike Vrabel and the work that he's done at different stops in the NFL. And, you know, you don't build hard-nosed, really good football teams in the NFL by just giving guys days off at practice. So I'm a little torn on this, I guess, Dukes. Yeah, I get it. I mean, all of that is fair. But, yeah, when thinking about, like, the kind of offensive line coach I want, it's not a softie. Don't you need to be a hard-ass to some extent? Yeah. You mean to tell me, B-Flo, you think B-Flo is a softie? I'm just saying. like i get it like those guys were in the belly of the beast so i will defer to their criticism that's fine i have not heard that from an o'neill or a derisa or a donovan jackson or will fries go up and down the list so that's news to me even joe huber who came in as an undrafted free agent like part of the appeal was the connection he had with coop but also building a rapport with with Carter. So I don't know. Like if you can get Frank Smith fine with that resume, cool. Sign me up because I'm just thinking like those run game, like tendencies and all that, like down in Miami, if you can bring some of that up here Okay Especially if you can end up with Jeremiah Love at pick 18 although I still don think he falling all the way to 18 And there still needs to be an investment in the running game from the play caller standpoint So we can have that discussion if KOC is willing to bend that much. But I'm just telling you, I've not heard that, right? And hey, we can bring up Mike Pettin's comments the other day on that Cleveland podcast, you know, taking the high road. But you can read between the lines of what he said or didn't say when asked about B-Flow, right? Like, there's different coaching styles. Because I think that was just philosophically, those two just couldn't get on the same page, Petten and Flo. I don't think it was Petten or it is Petten thinking that Flo is some sort of bad dude. And so I just, I haven't heard that stuff on Carter. Legit. I mean, I also think there's just something to be said, generally speaking, about living and learning, right? And so you take that criticism, you grow from that. I'm sure Flo is a little bit different now compared to whatever hard-ass he was down in Miami as a head coach. So I don't think that is going to be a huge factor. To me, if you can hire a guy like Smith or some other name that's got many, many years of experience and schematically fits what they're trying to accomplish, okay, you make the outside hire. But I'm just saying, to me internally, Heath is very worthy of a promotion. I just feel like if you're going to blow out the main guy, and this is probably not fair, I'm not sure I'm going to turn to the assistant of the assistant at that point in time. I'm probably going to bring in somebody else. Because if Cooper's the fall guy and he was under Carter, does that mean that Carter was saying, this guy is not any good. I mean, look at what he's doing. I just feel like it's, and there's enough questions here. If it hadn't happened with the Jets too, and I also don't trust a guy who's an assistant to the assistant to become to like have be totally different once he gets more power well but he had his own i mean he was his own offensive line coach for seven years before he was the assistant to the assistant but he was the assistant to assistant for a reason and what i'm saying is live and learn is fine but i feel like i would just go outside i go outside and hey like i haven't heard any buzz of carter being on the radar of other teams. You think about all these coaching staffs being hired. Right. And so can we read between those lines? Like now there could be other stuff going on. Like I checked on McArdle, right? You have the Vikings wide receivers coach. He was on the Saints radar a year ago to be OC. We're not hearing his name at all. He is not attached to any OC openings. Then I was reminded, you ready for this? because we go down this rabbit hole, who knows where it goes. But, you know, just the messenger here, this person texted me, just look, outside of Eric Biennemi, who was just hired as the OC in Kansas City, and he's not the play caller in Kansas City, there is not an African-American offensive coordinator. There was not an African-American offensive coordinator in 2025. Across the league, there wasn't. Right, so, I mean, that's opening Pandora's box. I understand that, but I'm just saying you can look at it and say, okay, all right, why isn't Keith on the radar of some other team? So I get where you're coming from, Judd. If you're blowing it up, you say, okay, Chris Cooper, we're not renewing your contract. Fine. You should probably bring in somebody completely new, that it doesn't make logical sense just to promote his assistant. I get that. I'm just saying I've not heard of anything behind the scenes that suggests that Keith is some sort of hard-ass or isn't worthy of another opportunity. Just on Frank Smith real quick here, you've got to figure out with him because he was the four-year offensive coordinator under Mike McDaniel. And if we're lauding Mike McDaniels in a couple of those seasons, I know it was kind of an overall not the most successful period, but the Dolphins for some chunks there over the four years had a great offense, great running game. Devon A. Chan has emerged into one of the most explosive running backs. didn't Raheem Mostert also have a big season there too so you kind of taking these guys that aren't first round picks and uh and and just creating this wildly impactful running game to what extent was Frank Smith a driver of that or would you be hiring based on association to success and it was mostly Mike McDaniel because there's a was it uh someone on a podcast recently told a story about how Mike McDaniel explained like in the game flow of a game where hey if we if we draw this run play up this way like it is a touchdown based on the way that their defense is flowing like he was this mad scientist of if we hit if we run this it hits it's a hundred percent a touchdown we just have to choose when we run it like he'd he'd call stuff like that uh okay well how much of that is personnel and having a Devon HN who can break those runs was Frank Smith like 20% a part of that? I don't know if he was, he wasn't technically the run game coordinator, but he has been that at other places, including Los Angeles in 2021 with the Chargers. He's been a tight ends coach with the Bears and the Raiders. And then he was with Sean Payton and the Saints from 2010 through 2014 as an assistant offensive line coach. So Frank Smith has a really interesting resume. Sean Payton guy, Mike McDaniel, creative offense. So I think I'm with Judd. I'd rather just bring in another outside voice at this point and someone that hasn't had a track record of pissing off offensive linemen than just promoting from within if it's just between those two guys you just you never know though like who's the rams assistant offensive line coach there's some history there with koc okay the rams good offensive line okay who deserves credit Durante Jones, okay, new commander's defensive coordinator. Okay. Like, he's never called the defense at the NFL level, right, one year at LSU. But how do you know? All right, if you're Washington, yeah, Durante, incredibly impressive, right? So you sit down, lengthy interview, thorough interview, okay. He knocks the interview out of the park. We offer him the job. But are you hoping that some of that beef flow magic, like his blood over, Like, I just, I don't know. Right? Like, how do you know? You just, you know, I don't know, Phil. Don't totally. You're right. No clue. I mean, but guys are doing this even with head coaching hires. I don't know how they know. Who cares what I know? I don't know how they know. Right? How do the commanders know? Now, hey, Dan Quinn, defensive-minded head coach. Yeah. It's a little different, right? And does Dan call the defense? I don't know if he does or not in Washington, Judd. But it's a little different. But I'm just saying, like, how do you know if Durante Jones is the right hiker? Well, I think part of it, Dukes, is this. Now, in retrospect, that sort of one-off weird situation where B-Flow talked to the commanders about their D.C. job, my guess is they picked his brain and then they got Durante in to see if there was a real synergy there and there probably was but just to go back to the the offensive line for a second because the coach is obviously incredibly important it could be an incredibly important part of the run game if the Vikings do this right all of that being said though you know one of the biggest questions and stories to follow is Christian Derrissaw like does Christian Derrissaw come back and he plays 17 games and And it's just over with. Like, it was such a weird year there. And literally, when you're going from Christian Derrissaw to Justin School, right, that's such a step down as far as the fact that Christian is on the border of being, if not a top five, when healthy, left tackle. So I will say this, as far as the offensive line goes, the Derrissaw storyline is incredibly important. Because at the end of the day, you did not know, and I don't think O'Connell knew, when he could play and when he couldn't play. Oh, absolutely. Now, my understanding is Derisaw has been in town working out diligently. I mean, the idea is, yeah, hopefully he's good to go for 17 games here in 2026. In fact, my older son said he was at the Weisetta Hopkins boys basketball game on Friday. I was there. You got your kids doing? I didn't see him. You got your kids now trying to find players. This is incredible. It's a family affair. Well, he said he saw it on Derisaw's Instagram, right? Instagram story. I'm on Instagram, but I'm not looking at stories. Maybe I need to start looking at stories on social media, Instagram specifically. But, yeah, but Derisaw's been in town. The idea is, yeah, another year removed. I mean, it was, what, October of 24? So as we get to September of 26, darn near 24 months removed, that he should be fine. But you just, you don't know. Sure. I mean, that goes back to my defensive Chris Cooper. Like if Cooper had Derusaw week one in Chicago, had some consistency, continuity along the offensive line, how much better would the O-line been this year? Maybe they renew Cooper's contract. Heck, maybe we're still talking about the Vikings playing right now, right? Or at least would have made the postseason. So I just, it's hard to know. It is, but I get, just logically speaking, if you're making the move away from Cooper, I understand it. You just, you don't promote internally. You need to go find an external hire. Heck, I'd love to find out deep down why Ledford, now maybe it's just a connection to Jesse Mentor, but why did Ledford decide to head to Baltimore and not, you know, pursue any potential of landing the Vikings job or some other job? Like, why was Baltimore the place to go, right? And now with, you know, things picking up down in Mobile, hopefully our guy Thor can arrive. I don't know if he was able to get in the air this morning or not, but not yet. But travel day Monday. Not yet, but he's the update is Thor just got done recording Thor talks purple from a random hotel in D.C. After a 15 hour stalled travel day yesterday. And he is now at Dulles looking to hop on a connection to Atlanta and then into Mobile. Fingers crossed. We'll see. Yeah. Getting to Mobile. Not exactly the easiest. In fact, maybe how far of a drive is it from Atlanta to Mobile? Let me just rent a car. Is that a ridiculous drive? Maybe it is. I don't think it's. It's probably a few hours. I feel like Atlanta, like you're within a couple hours of a lot of places. Like I remember flying into Atlanta years ago, going to a college football game in Knoxville, the University of Tennessee game. You're like, you fly into Atlanta to go to Knoxville? Yeah, it was only a couple hours. I don't know. Is Mobile like ridiculously far from Atlanta? Maybe it is. I don't know. It's kind of tucked away. Hopefully Thor can make it. But things are ramping up down in Mobile, although I'm sure he's not the only one with travel issues the last 48 hours. So some of these teams heading down there, you know, it might be, you know, some sort of delay in getting down there. But, you know, like that's a mini coaching convention, right? So things will ramp up over the coming days. But like, I'd love to hear. Hopefully I will eventually why Ledford decided to settle on Baltimore versus pursuing some other opportunities. But yeah, I mean, to me, Frank Smith, sure. Right. And hey, the Eagles have have interviewed a number of OC candidates. I thought Josh McCown might come up in Philly. That's another fascinating situation. Think about two years ago. Like, I would have told you, hey, call me nuts, but two years ago, I would have told you, okay, let's fast forward to January of 26. Josh McCown is a head coach. He hasn't even called plays yet. Right? So much can change so fast. His resume as a quarterback's coach is, I mean, obviously Sam Darnold's in there. But the bookends of that as a quarterbacks coach, I think are Bryce young year one, right. And JJ McCarthy. And those are not great things on his resume to this. What if I told you he was open-minded to Darnold being back in 25? Yeah, I would, I would not be surprised. He doesn't have final say, but I'm just saying. Wouldn't surprise me. More on the quarterback stuff here in a second. Judd after we've shot out MSP plumbing, heating, and air conditioning. Oh, most definitely. And look, if you are thinking about replacing your heating and cooling system, now is the perfect time. For a limited time, customers who purchase a qualifying HVAC system will receive wild tickets on us. That's right. You also will get a $100 gift card to spend at the game. Just make sure to mention Judd or Score North to qualify for the tickets. That means from our friends at MSP, you're going to get a new HVAC system. You're going to get wild tickets and peace of mind knowing that your home is covered. That is a hat trick of comfort. That is the way to go. Schedule your free estimate today by calling MSP at 651-615-4292 or check out their website, callmsp.com. Callmsp.com. Again, schedule your free estimate today. Tickets are limited from MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air. Dukes, we did another episode of Purple Daily where we asked the question, what would have to happen over the next 12 months for the Vikings to get to the Super Bowl one year from now New England made a big jump Seattle was Seattle was like a 9-10 win team that made a big jump and now Super Bowl and I think most people thought those two I could see a path for those two teams to be playoff teams and be competitive the New England schedule but not to be meeting in the Super Bowl so the NFL wild jumps are very possible in the NFL and the Vikings have a pretty good base they're not a train wreck team so what would you say is the number one thing that if the vikings are going to be in the super bowl one year from now like this is the number one thing that was different is it yeah it's competent quarterback play whether that's mccarthy or someone else i mean to me it's a large separation that from whatever number two is on that list run defense or whatever it is i don't even know what number two would be on that list But yeah, competent quarterback play is absolutely number one. But you right Like I was texting with my buddy Todd Downing Patriots wide receivers coach the other day hoping to connect with him via Zoom here before the week is over before they head out to Santa Clara And like I'm thinking about when the Patriots were here in mid-August, there's nobody on the planet. Yes. OK, Mike Rabel. Yes, the Patriots will take a leap. But nobody on the planet mid-August when the Patriots were in Eagan for joint practices thought the Patriots would be alive here on January 27th playing in the Super Bowl, winning the AFC. So I don't think it's incredibly far-fetched. You know, if you're a believer in the every-other-year thing, the Vikings are going to the playoffs in 2026. It is weird. We can go back, what, 10 years? Every other year, make the playoffs, miss the playoffs, make the playoffs, miss the playoffs, okay. Miss the playoffs in 25, make the playoffs in 26. Third-place schedule, all right. Although, you know, they've been better off the fourth-place schedule, those three games. But maybe those three games aren't that big of a deal, Colts and Commanders and, what, the 49ers, compared to the Cardinals and Titans and Giants. I mean, favorable setup for the Lions, that fourth-place schedule. But, yeah, I mean, there's still enough good pieces in place. Yeah, okay, there's some cap work to do. But, yeah, to me, it's just about competent quarterback play. Until I hear otherwise, I think Jordan Addison, happy birthday, by the way, to Jordan Addison. I think he's back. How's he celebrating? Hopefully not very much. Yeah, let's just stay home. Let's lay low tonight. Yeah, I think that's probably a good idea. Whatever fun you want to have, have it in the comfort of your home there in the South. Bring the fun to you. You're probably not in Invergro Pikes right now. So wherever you are, Southern Cal or Florida, just, yeah, do everything in the comfort of your home. But, yeah, happy birthday to Jordan Addison. But until I hear otherwise, I think you run it back with him. The question is, do you extend him or wait it out? You get him at a lesser number now with everything going on. But until I hear otherwise, I think you lose Jalen Naylor in free agency, but you bring back Jordan Addison, and you still have two of, to me, the 20 best wide receivers on the planet. And so figure it out, right? And, you know, I can make a case for a number of positions at pick 18, but if they went love at the running back position, great. You know, if you go defensive tackle, fine, or cornerback, whatever it is, but you'll get a good player. You have four picks in the top 100. Okay, yes, we get it. This front office needs to hit on a number of those draft picks. These guys need to perform immediately. Ty Felton needs to take a monster step up as a third-round pick last year. But to me, it's all about competent quarterback play. But I don't think it's ridiculous, Phil. I don't. You know, call me crazy, fine. But I don't think it's nuts to suggest. Now, hey, I get it. KOC hasn't even won a playoff game yet. Ben Johnson already has more playoff wins than KOC. everybody in the division has a playoff win except for Kevin O'Connell I understand that but I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest the Vikings could go on a run next season hey Dukes have you heard any rumblings and and this would not be I don't think it would be confirmed or announced by the Vikings but have you heard anything about sort of final say on draft picks and how that's going to work and if it's going to be different because there have been like there's been rumblings about and and this could have happened when ko and quasi signed extensions as well but you know in trying to pinpoint who's doing what and when and where and who's screwing up or not uh has there been any undercurrent of how things are going to work draft wise um with with the ultimate hammer or final sand picks yeah because i really thought minimum they would bring somebody in there was no buzz late in the season that quasi's job was in any sort of jeopardy just from me i thought hey like just adding some help to the front office yeah made all sorts of sense and so far i've not heard of any help being brought in so until i hear otherwise judd i think it's going to be the same collaboration that they've had going back the last few years stack the board the way they always stack it but sure i mean to me there's a fascination in okay like guys are even okay positionally you can draft for need from that standpoint but yeah i mean ultimately it's quasi saying okay we're going with this guy or that guy but yeah we know that you know whether it's flores koc any number of other coaches that they value their opinions i mean there's a lot of voices that's the thing i don't know how you differentiate there are so many voices like you think about the coaching staff how many assistant position coaches there are and quality control assistants. Not that those voices are loud in the pre-draft process, but I'm just thinking across the board. Like, to think that they're always on the same page, that would be impossible. Because there are so many freaking people involved, right? And from a player personnel standpoint and draft standpoint and all the area scouts they have and, you know, Gregson and Ryan Munnins and all these guys. It's like, I don't know how you separate all the opinions because there's no way they're always in full agreement. But I've not heard, Joe, to answer your question, no, I've not heard of anything changing in terms of how they'll stack their board, you know, the visits they'll take, how they'll attack pro days and their plans at the Combine and all that. You know, I'll let you know if I do, But my understanding would be it would be the same as they've done in the past. Darren Doogie Wolfson, everybody. Darren Doogie Wolfson from the five eyewitness news sports department. Plenty more on the horizon here with the Senior Bowl this week. You're going to have the combine in a few weeks. There's going to be – the pieces are going to be moving around in terms of NFL player movement, quarterback speculation, different things like that. So this is where, like, the Senior Bowl is where a lot of people congregate and start having conversations for the first time, and then the combine. So this will get pretty juicy here, and the Vikings have a lot to figure out. So Dugues, we'll do it again probably later this Thursday. We might also hit you up for a flagrant. Yeah, we can do flagrant. Yeah, nine days from the trade deadline. The Wolves will be active. I anticipate them doing something. So, yeah, we can do flagrant on Thursday. But, yeah, I love it. Like, I even saw, you know, Albert Breer, national guy, right? I mean, he wasn't denying the idea of Mac Jones coming to the Vikings. Maybe even added some smoke to the steam there, right? But, you know, whether it's Mac Jones or someone else, yeah. I mean, think about just how much fun the next six weeks are going to be. I love it. Absolutely love it. A very recklessly speculative period here, guys. I mean, not even reckless, right? I mean, I don't think – Responsibly. Again, I'm not giving up a second-round pick for Mac Jones, but – Well, then you're not going to get Mac Jones. No, you're probably not. So it's got to be someone else. But I'm just saying, I love this time of the year. I freaking love it. Darren Doogie Wolfson, we'll catch you next time here, Purple Daily, where we just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. See you guys.
